Keeping the postal service up & running, one stamp at a time. Usually silly, sometimes cranky, occasionally a mix of the two.

I have learned what a “Maximum Card” is! Well, at least if the sender of this stamp-on-a-matching-card (received via Postcrossing from China) is to be believed. The college student writes:

“The picture of the postcard is Chinese New’s famous painter, art educator Liu Haisu. Hope you enjoy this Maximum Card!”

That card with the something-or-the-other with the diamond-shaped hole… well, it came by way from Indonesia via Postcard United, and the sender wrote little more than “Greetings from Indonesia”–but fortunately, the words “Borobudur, Jawa Tengah” were printed on the front, and when I asked Jeeves, he told me this:

Borobudur, or Barabudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia, and the world’s largest Buddhist temple. The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. The monument is the single most visited tourist attraction in Indonesia. The high volume of visitors ascending the Borobudur’s narrow stairs has caused a severe wear out on the stone of the stairs, eroding the stones surface and made them thinner and smoother.

Sounds like tourist heck!

The orangey building painting is from Taiwan, via Postcard United:

I’m sending you a card image of an UNESCO site in which I like to visit one day–“Toulou,” an unique historical architecture albeit structure that exists in southeastern China. Such structure is aparments alike as its interior has many households. Toulou comes in square, rectangular, circular and oval like architecture. Toulou in Chinese means “soil floors.”

I’m so confused; I looked up “Toulou China UNESCO” online, & none of the photos seems to resemble this postczrd image.

From India, via Postcard United, I received the hilltop-castley-forty-looking “General View Golconda Fort.” A couple of issue with the card: it’s printed on what’s a lightish-medium-weight magazine cover stock (but I don’t care); and the “caption” printed on the other side covers all of the writable space, leaving the sender to squeeze a greeting & signature into the corners (and I do care). But it’s always nice to receive a card from India.

The white gate with pigeons came from Taiwan via Postcard United, and there’s not much of a message, but lovely stamps, and a very special dog postmark that the sender writes was only available on the day she sent the card. Wow, other countries sure to have special mail/postcard cultures!

That scene from the Thames came from London via Postcrossing, and the sender says:

“This time of the year it’s almost always cloudy outside, but since it’s a big city you can always find somewhere indoor forgetting about the weather!”

Do you think the books below were purchased soley for their uniform spines? The card came to me from somewhere in the U.S. via swap-bot–and you need to scroll down & see the very old stamps the sender used. She writes:

“I only have a handful of old books, probably oldest is from 1880s. I stared reading it and it was boring, LOL.”

I’m not sure what’s going on in that dark painting that looks like a child’s hand holding a wooden horse’s head. Creepy. It’s from Russia, and the decorations on the back–all snacks & Starbucks–lighten the mood considerably. It came my way in a Postcrossing Forum “last movie I’ve seen tag,” and if you look for the stickers I mentioned below, you’ll be able to read about her last movie seen.

That snowy scene is from Takamatsu City, Japan, and the sender sets the scene:
“This garden was constructed by the feudal lords in 16th to 17th century. It’s open to the public now, one of my favorite sites to visit. This card shows a snowy view, however, it hardly snows here. Good photo, I think.”

I’d love to see it green & springy!

We’ll transition over to the stamps by way of this stamp-themed postcard from Malaysia. Much more pleasing are the real-life stamps used to mail the card. Malaysian stamps never disappoint! I love the center of the three used, laden as it is with jackfruit, durian, mangosteen, and rambutan!

I love these two little seals! They came to me from Germany via Postcrossing Forum, and the sender writes:

“I saw some cards like this at your favorites so I decide to send you this one. The word ‘wasserratten’ means ‘water rats,’ we also call people who loves to swim this way.”

The meerkats came from a sender in Italy who seems to have confused them for another animal:

“A few years ago, I visited, together with some friends, a zoo safari not far from my home. The first animal I saw was a lemur, standing on the top of his lair, who watched us curious.”

The wonderful pandas come from Fuzhou, China, but it’s food the sender has in mind:

“In Fuzhou, my favorite snack is called meat yan. Unlike other kinds of wontons, the wrapper of it is made of minced meat and sweet potato flour. I tastes so good that you should try it some day!”

This offers the perfect transition into the food postcard version of my post. The sweet postcard below if from my friend Cindi in Hawaii, and it shows hula pie. Even better is the Snoopily-decorated back of the card, which appears toward the bottom of this post.

The table laden with Indian delicacies comes from Chennai, India, via Postcard United. The sender writes:

Greetings from Chennai, one of the major cities in India. Here we speak Tamil, one of the longest surviving languages in the world. I am sending you a card that features some of the famous food in India.

Don’t miss the beautiful, huge stamp that was on the back of this card, featuring a scene from the Ramayana!

That mapo tofu sung to me so loudly that I went out & ordered it one night, and ate a homemade version the next! It came to me from Japan via a Postcrossing Forum food package postcard tag. The sender writes:

“This is a package of ‘mapo tofu.’ Do you know it? Its taste is spicy and hot. I like it.”

Next comes the soup, and it’s from Hong Kong:

“Hope you like my own postcard. Noodle soup is Asian staple food.”

The last postcard came to me from Germany from the regular Postcrossing, and the sender tells me:

“I’m sending you this card depicting the specialty of my region: Schäufele. It’s the shoulder part of the pork and the meat on the bone. Has to be very tender but it has a crispy crust. Yum!”

Okay, stamp time! In the first row, don’t miss Hong Kong’s Kitchenware Street! I’ll have to check it out next time I am there.

This post is full of postcards–jam-packed with them, along with their accompanying stamps, stickers, and washi tape. What it lacks is full detail–but who cares, am I right?

We start off here with a couple of regular Postcrossing sends, and a couple of Postcrossing Forum sends: this set goes out to Zhengzhou, Henen, China; Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; Potsdam, Germany; and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

I visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum this month & reloaded on my Peanuts postcard stock. Mostly more copies of old stuff, but they did have one great new postcard to go with their new temporary exhibit celebrating the character Franklin. Three of these have gone out in the mail recently: two to Japan, & one to Hawaii.

A food package and a movie postcard follow. I’ve had a lot of this drink; never seen the movie.

Flying squirrels & durian–this card went to Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, in a Postcrossing Forum “Last Movie I’ve Seen” tag. That movie: Black Panther. The best of the Marvel heroes movies!

Heavens help me, I’m dipping into swap-bot again. For this trade, I had to send a Disney postcard to 5 different people (4 in the U.S.; 1 in Ireland). A couple of these cards came from the Art of Disney: The Renaissance and Beyond box set, and the rest came from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, which I visited for the first time recently-ish.

Stamps, stickers, and washi tape time. Do you have any favorites? I do!

Happy New Year! To mark the occasion, I send these cool Snoopy postcards to my Snoopy-loving postpals in England, Japan, & the U.S.

Nengajō is a huge deal in Japan–but just try finding New Year’s postcards (or even standard greeting cards) here in the U.S.! In fact, I had to get these through a Japan-based e-tailer. I sure do wish the custom would catch on here.

Last time, I posted two Hawaiian Kids cards I received way back in January. Now I’ll show the back sides of those cards, and yet another piece of mail received at about the same time from my post pal in Hawaii. Let’s start with a look at this Peanuts Christmas card!

Now a look at the backsides of the afore-mentioned postcards. Look at this awesome stamp-and-sticker work!

It’s almost the Year of the Dog, and here I am, finally sharing the card I received for the Year of the Rooster. Shame on me!

Cooool envelope work here–and look at those classic stamps! Loving the Little Nemo & Bringing Up Father! When I was a kid, that second one was still hanging in there, & running in the Honolulu Advertiser! Or maybe not, but I think so.

Preface: there’s great stuff–stamps and stickers–on the back side of these two cards, but that’s to be saved for another time because as I said: today, it’s all about the kids. Let’s proceed.

I’ve been playing a lot of catch-up lately here, in posting cards both sent and received. Here I present two of my most-favorite cards I’ve gotten in the mail, previously not shared because– I’m so disorganized. They came in separately 11 months ago from my dear post-pal Cindi in Hawaii, & I love the art so much I wanted to present them together, but I ever never been able to locate them both at the same time, until now.

I love Dole Hawaiian Kids art, I grew up with it. If I ever manage to find the small metal box containing my childhood postcard collection, I know it will still contain a couple of these cards. Having spent a lot of time in Hawaii growing up, and having had a relative who worked for the Dole company, I was exposed to this art from an early age (I think I even had a coloring book). I love Barbara Bradley‘s art for this series!

Now that the two cards are together again, they will go into my “keeper” pile together!

This beautiful flower postcard was sent to me from Japan, and it wasn’t originally meant as a postcard! The sender explains:

This card is famous souvenir cookie’s box from Hokkaido–the northernmost prefecture in Japan.

The onions are an actual postcard, rather than from a box of souvenir onions or something. The card was sent to me from Kaluga, Russia, by a sender who writes that her town is not far from Moscow, and:

We are proud of Cosmonautics State Museum. I love art, puzzles, psychology.

The child-on-cattle card came from China, and the sender explains:

This kind of painting is called shuimo, an old traditional kind. There’s a kid riding on the back of a cattle, farm cattle. Guess you know the importance of cattles to ancient Chinese people. Also, there’s a poem written in ancient Chinese characters. The poem dated from 2500 years ago.

The Indian Court card came to me from Wisconsin via Postcard United–Postcard United does that thing, pairing a person with someone from their own country. It also does stuff like this:

That is correct: as of the moment I am writing this, I have received 36 more postcards than I have mailed out. This embarrassment of riches points out the fact that other people out there are getting screwed over.

One more thing of note about that card: the man who sent it decorated it with a couple of banana stickers. Scroll down, you’ll see.

This sketchy little village is also from the U.S., but via a swap-bot trade. The sender, who lives somewhere near San Diego, is just the first person in this post who spent some time living not far from me:

Hello! I grew up in Hayward, lived there until I was 20. Not too far from you. 🙂

The Japan card came from somewhere in–guess what country–via Postcard United. The sender tells me she, too, lived quite close to me for a time:

I spent a year in Oakland, CA as an exchange students & almost every weekend I visited S.F by myself. It was about 30 years ago (!!) But still I ❤ Bay Area and I’m so happy to write to you. My host mother used to work your place as a teacher.

Speaking of true callings, and professions of high purpose & service to humanity, this next card came to me from a self-professed “full-time lifestyle blogger.”

She lives in Belgrade, Serbia, and took time out from her busy schedule to tell me about the card:

You can see “the face” of the Statue of Victory, one of the most known sights in Belgrade. It’s the symbol of our city. You can Google it and see what it looks like in nature. Hope this will help you find out more about our country.

The card next to the last one looks like death, and it was sent to me from Spain, in a Postcrossing Forum “last movie I’ve seen” thread. She tells me about “My Life as a Zucchini:”

…a French animation film for adults that is just one hour long but the impression it makes lasts for a lifetime. I was deeply moved by it and cried buckets. So if you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

I want to see “Coco,” but I’m not sure if they’ve removed the 21 offensive opening minutes I keep hearing so much about. I would have to adjust my arrival time.

This headphone-wearing letter C is from a Postcrosser in Xinyu, Jiangxi, China. He had a standard message translated into English and printed on a rubber stamp, as you’ll see toward the bottom of this post.

I end with the “NORMAL” postcard, which I may or may not have shared many moons ago–but it’s not marked as having been logged, so there we have it. This was received from Bonnie Jeanne

This was from Bonnie Jeanne of Postally Yours, who had an “orphaned postcard project” in which she logged the postcards in her personal collection, and people like me would “claim” a card to which they had a personal connection (a place they were from, a favorite place to visit, etc.). She would send us the card in an envelope, and we would write on it, about the card/place, and send it back to her. Her website would share those stories. I participated twice, and really had fun with it. It seems she has moved on to other things. I wish her all the best.

Stamps & stamps & stickers follow. I especially loved this one stamp from Japan, so I made sure to show an enlargement (for my own enjoyment, if for no one else’s).

One of the upsides of being so horribly behind in cataloging my received postcards is that I am at least able to go through the accumulated cards (well, the ones that I can currently find) and do some grouping by theme. This time, it’s some toon-tastic cards, received through all of my current avenues: Postcrossing, Postcrossing Forum, Postcard United, swap-bot, and postcard pals!

First up: B. Kliban! I’m always thrilled to find Kliban Cats in my mail. They surrounded me when I grew up: they were marketed on t-shirts, bed sheets, soap dispensers, calendars, and on & on. The world today could use more Kliban cats. This came to me from a Postcrosser in Cedar Hill, Texas, who saw cards like this one in my favorites.

Every time I look at this image, I notice a new detail.

This Snoopy postcard looks like a piece of original art! The Postcrosser who sent it to me tells me she bought it during a visit to the Snoopy Museum in Tokyo, Japan.

I love, love, love, the style of very-early-era Peanuts art. I was thrilled to get this Lucy (my spirit animal) card from my post pal Cindi in Hawaii. Be sure to scroll down for the stickers, washi tape–and a great Disney Queen of Hearts stamp! And while you’re down there, do be sure to spend time with all of the other stamps, stickers, & washi tape. This is a good post for both sides of the cards I’ve received!

Time to move from Peanuts to Totoro. This wonderful scene came to me from a Postcrosser in Astoria, Oregon, who writes:

I am also a huge fan of Asian cuisine. We lived in Singapore for two years–yum! Ate in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Australia So much good food–love the crosss-cultural stuff. And lucky now to live on the West Coast–foodie heaven. Food carts are boss. Last weekend ate at a place called DJ’s Vinyl Vegan–it was fabulous. It was part of our weekend eat-fest in Astoria. Also had Scandinavian food at the Midsummer Festival. This weekend too hot to go out. Hope you are getting some good eats!

The other Totoro card came to me from Malaysia via Postcard United, from a sender who tells me that ol’ Totes is their favorite cartoon character.

Next up: a pair of Finding Nemo cards. Let me interrupt myself to say that I was at Disney California Adventure last week, and after many visits having ignored the attraction, I finally went to “Turtle Talk with Crush,” and let me tell you–I am never going to skip over it again! Hilarious! Reminded me of a Paula Poundstone performance (and I’ve been to many).

Okay, the cards. The first of them came to me via regular Postcrossing, from Minsk, Belarus, with the following message:

I am a senior student at Linguistic University where I study the English and French languages and American and British Country Studies. I like traveling, reading books, and birds. I have a monk parakeet (Rudy). He can talk.

The other Nemo card came to me from St. Paul, Minnesota, via a swap-bot “Currently Reading” trade. The sender had a few books going at once, and she listed them for me:

Okay, the last 3 are Sanrio: Hello Kitty Country! I sometimes enter Postcrossing Forum tags where every other person is to receive a Hello Kitty card. Since I do not have any to send, I enter on the receiving rounds…and then promptly say that I’d really love to receive Badtz-Maru (or any one of several other ancillary characters). This first card, sent from somewhere in Japan, stars Badtz!

The big Hello Kitty card came from Lausanne, Switzerland, and the smaller one made its way from Nakatsu, Ōita, Japan.

Hey, we made it through! now enjoy the stamps, stickers, washi tape, and a few of the messages. Let me know what you liked! I feel really accomplished right now, to have logged 10 more of my back postcards.